Springfield, VA (April 3, 2014) – With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, five Volkswagen employees filed a brief defending their right to have a say in the high-profile unionization dispute at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tennessee facility.

The brief was filed after the United Auto Worker (UAW) union asked the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to reverse a Regional Director’s ruling allowing the workers to intervene in the union’s challenge to the outcome of the recent unionization election, which the UAW lost.

The brief opposes further delays to the NLRB’s hearing on the union’s challenge, and accuses the UAW of using false evidence to prompt the Board to remove the workers from the process. The brief also calls for a Department of Justice investigation to consider a prosecution of the UAW’s “witness” for filing demonstrably false statements under oath.

The brief states, “That the UAW resorted to filing a false declaration that could be so easily disproved to attempt to show the existence of a grand and secret conspiracy being waged against it smacks of the desperation and paranoia increasingly gripping the union following its rejection by Volkswagen employees in the election.”

The brief then points out that the UAW’s false accusations against the Foundation are not reason enough to exclude the workers even if the accusations were true. The brief states “The UAW’s case proceeds from the misguided premise that it is objectionable if any entity campaigned or spoke against the union in the election. While this belief may reflect how elections are conducted in Venezuela or North Korea, it does not reflect how elections are conducted in this free nation.”

Patrick Semmens, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation, issued the following statement:

“The NLRB Regional Director has ruled that the workers are entitled to defend their vote to keep the UAW out of their workplace. The decision over whether or not to unionize is supposed to lie with the workers, which makes the attempt by the UAW to shut them out of this process all the more shameful.

“The UAW’s latest claims are both desperate and delusional. Nothing UAW bosses are claiming changes the fact that VW employees should have the right to defend their vote to keep the UAW out of their workplace. The real question the brief raises is: Why are UAW officials so afraid of workers and their National Right to Work Foundation-provided attorneys being part of this process?”

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, assists thousands of employees in more than 250 cases nationwide per year.